Tim Cook tells Apple customers that it isn't a 'treasure trove' for NSA

Apple is not in the business of storing – or supplying – data about its customers, boss Tim Cook has said.

The assurance comes just two weeks after Apple's iCloud found itself at the centre of a celebrity nude picture controversy – although Apple itself has confirmed that only passwords and not its systems were compromised.

Our business is not based on having information about you,” Cook said, as reported by The Verge. You're not our product. Our products are these, and this watch, and Macs, and so forth.

And so we run a very different company. I think everyone has to ask, how do companies make their money? Follow the money. And if they're making money mainly by collecting gobs of personal data, I think you have a right to be worried. And you should really understand what's happening to that data, and the companies — I think — should be very transparent.”

Cook also insisted that Apple does not read users' emails or iMessages.

"We have hundreds and millions of customers [but] it's a very rare instance that there's been any data asked," Cook added. "And one of the reasons is, we don't keep a lot. We're not the treasure trove of places to come to."